The Portland daily press., 1887-03-30

Mugwumps to attempt to carry Chicago. The
result cannot be doubtful. The better ele-
ment will be unsuccessful, and Harrison will
come forth from his temporary retirement
after election bigger boss than ever.
Another Stage of the Irish Question.
The Irish question has entered another
very important and very critical stage. The
Tory government of Lord Salisbury has re-
solved to resort to coercion. A brief glance
Mt the startling provisions Of the coercve
measure which is proposed, and at its his
torical connections will enable better APP.
probation of the gravity of the situation.
An American brought up to our notions of
civil liberty can hardly comprehend what is
meant by coercion in Ireland. Trial by jury
Of his fellow citizens in the court of the
county or district has been privilege of
the accused American so long that it is diff
cult to conceive Of men submitting to any,
thing else. Yet the bill now PENDING in the
English Parliament proposes, in certain dis
tricts which the authorities may see fit to
designate, to abolish the jury system in all
trials Of smaller cases of unlawful action
arising out of the agitation over rents and
evictions. Instead of by the jury, the decis-
ion and judgment both would be given by
magistrate, an officer of the English govern
ment, not Of the Irish people. For the trial
of greater crimes, such as murder arson etc.,
not even the Tory leaders dare abolish the
trial by jury; but the bill provides a method
very oppressive, whereby Irishmen suspected
OF these crimes may be transferred 10 Eng
land and there tried before jury of foreign
ers, very likely hostile foreigners. The bill
would also give magistrate power to exam
Inc witnesses on oath, where no persons are
charged with crimes-a power Of inquisition
that free people would not tolerate mo-
ment from their magistrates. And finally,
there Is a provision that the viceroy may
proclaim dangerous societies." by which is
meant the National League. the refuge of
the Irish people in their extremity. The
liberty Of the press is not directly menaced,
but by giving magistrates power of summary
conviction for melting offenses, the authors
Of the bill think they have made abundant
provisions for dealing with the patriotic
journals of Ireland. No time is set at which
this act shall expire; its application, if once
passed, will continue until repealed This
is the coercion bill which Lord Salisbury's
government proposes They say the preva-
lence of agrarian outrages and the refusal
Of large bodies of tenants to pay rents make
it imperative, a proposition which, however,
is denied by the friends of Ireland.
Such an extraordinary law is not new in
the history of ireland Indeed, laws of ex-
traordinary severity have been the rule in
that unhappy island. Without going back,
IN az a ac ba 40 or
cion act of Lord Grey, there is one act with
which the present bill deserves to be COM
pared. That is the last coercion act pro-
posed by Mr.. Gladstone in 1882 and car
ried through by the Liberal party under his
leadership. That act known in history as
the Crimes Act, was somewhat severer than
the present bill. 1t destroyed the right of
meeting and Of newspaper discussion, as
well rs the trial by jury; the police were
given power to search houses at their own
will by night or day, and suspicious for
eigners might be banished from both
Ireland and England. By limitation this act
expired in 1885, and the Tory government,
which had succeeded Mr.. Gladstone, did not
venture to revive it. But it is not compar-
ison of the two measures themselves that is
comparison of the circumstances which
called for each, and distinct recollection of
the circumstances of the passage of the
Crimes Act through the Commons and its
subsequent enforcement.
When Mr.. Gladstone brought his Crimes
Act into the Parliament sitting in 1882, the
overwhelmingly Liberal Parliament that had
followed Beaconsfeld's retirement in 1880,
Lord Frederick Cayendish, chief secretary,
and Mr.. Burke, under secretary, of Ireland,
had just been brutally murdered in Phoenix
Park, Dublin. All England was enraged
and even the Irish patriots were dismayed
at the brutality of the deed. ParneIl had
less than fifty men to support him in the
House Of Commons, while nearly the whole
remaining body of the Parliament was
for the bill. Yet SO stubborn was the
fight which this small detachment made
that the act was finally passed, only
after Parnell and fifteen Of his fol-
lowers had been forcibly suspended from the
House, and after historic precedents of
the Commons had been reversed by the
adoption of a rule sanctioning the shutting
off Of debate by procedure much like our
previous question" To-day Ireland is
peaceful compared with her condition when
Mr.. Gladstone passed the Crimes Act. All
England is not enraged and calling for re-
pressive measures, but on the contrary fully
half Of its people are fayoring conciliatory
policy. And when it comes to the struggle
In the House of Commons, how different the
situation Then Mr.. Gladstone with a
triumphant majority overcame with difficulty
Parnell and his little handful. Now Par
nelps forces are increased to over eighty;
and with them as allies is Gladstone himself
with nearly two hundred English Liberals
at his back. They are in a minority, it is
true, but che Tory and Unionist majority of
121 at the beginning of the session has
dwindled to 50 on one division on this co-er-
cion bill and wherever an election has oc-
CURED to fill vacant seat in Parliament
the turn Of popular feeling has been shown
10 be towards Gladstone and Cancellation for
Ireland. The Crimes act of 1882 put down
the Land League, it is true, but the National
League Immediately arose. order too, came
to Ireland under it, but that order is to be at
tributed largely to other causes, to remedial
measures with which Mr.. Gladstone follow
ed up the Crimes Act, to a slackening of the
severity Of the landlords and finally to the
hopes Of success which the Irish people
found in Parliamentary activity. But this
was not until England had been terrified by
dynamite explosions which spared not even
the Houses Of Parliament If the present
coercion bill passes with not only Ireland,
but large part of England, Scotland and
Wales disappearing of it, the result may be
even greater revulsion of feeling in favor
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